NetSuite vs. QuickBooks: Should You Make The Switch?

In the ever-evolving landscape of business management, one of the pivotal decisions that business leaders may often grapple with is choosing the right technology for financial management. For many, the dilemma lies in weighing the pros and cons between two prominent platforms: NetSuite and QuickBooks. Each platform comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks, making the decision-making process akin to navigating a complex maze.

For those currently using QuickBooks, the prospect of transitioning to NetSuite adds an additional layer of complexity to the decision. As businesses grow and expand, the limitations of QuickBooks may become apparent, prompting a critical evaluation of whether it's time to make the switch to a more robust and scalable solution like NetSuite.

NetSuite and Quickbooks

Oracle NetSuite is a powerhouse in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software arena. Known for its comprehensive suite of applications, NetSuite empowers organizations to streamline their operations leading to efficiency.

In the realm of small and medium-sized business accounting, QuickBooks, on the other hand, is a household name. Widely recognized for its ease of use and affordability, QuickBooks has become a go-to platform for entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to efficiently manage their finances without the complexities associated with larger enterprise solutions.

Oracle NetSuite ERP

NetSuite is a cloud-based ERP accounting software that encompasses modules for financial management, supply chain management, ecommerce, customer relationship management (CRM), and professional services automation (PSA) among others. The software is designed to streamline and integrate various business processes, providing real-time visibility into critical operations. Some key features of NetSuite include:

Features

Quickbooks Online

On the other hand, QuickBooks Online is recognized for its accessibility and user-friendly approach, making it a popular choice for businesses seeking a straightforward and efficient solution for their accounting and financial management needs among other key features:

Quickbooks Enterprise

While QuickBooks Online allows some level of customization, the flexibility is not as robust as the Enterprise version. QuickBooks Enterprise is a highly customizable alternative, allowing businesses to tailor the software to their specific industry and operational needs. It provides a more extensive set of features, including advanced inventory management, customizable reporting and dashboards, enhanced user permissions, and is well-suited for businesses with complex requirements. Here’s how it looks like in comparison to Quickbooks Online:

Quickbooks Online vs Quickbooks Enterprise Features

NetSuite vs. Quickbooks (Quick Comparison Chart)

To give you a better overview, let’s put the features side by side and compare the key differences between NetSuite and QuickBooks. We have also laid out a pricing comparison between both softwares. This should help you make a more informed decision based on your specific requirements and preferences:

Feature Comparison

Price Comparison

The Primary Differentiators

Scope and Complexity

QuickBooks, while powerful, is primarily focused on core accounting processes well-suited for businesses with straightforward financial management needs. NetSuite, on the other hand, is designed to handle the complex needs of businesses of all sizes, particularly those with global operations. Its scalability and diverse functionalities make it suitable for organizations with intricate business processes and a need for integrations.

Customization and Flexibility

NetSuite is highly customizable, allowing businesses to adapt the system to their specific industry, workflows, and reporting requirements. QuickBooks also offers customization options, but they are not as extensive as NetSuite's.

Target Audience and Scaling

NetSuite's adaptability to diverse industries and business sizes positions it as an ERP solution for companies at various stages of growth. While QuickBooks has solutions for different business sizes, its functionality and features may not fully meet the complex requirements of large enterprises with extensive operational needs which is why it's primarily aimed at small to medium-sized businesses.

The Key Benefits of Oracle NetSuite Over Quickbooks

Oracle NetSuite and QuickBooks serve different segments of the market, and each has its strengths. Here are the key benefits of Oracle NetSuite over QuickBooks, particularly for businesses with complex needs:

Greater Insight Into Business Processes

As business practices change and your company grows, it's critical to have total insight into your operations in order to determine what needs to be done. Complex systems, contradicting data, and a significant lack of reporting occur from keeping one piece of data in QuickBooks and storing crucial updated information elsewhere.

Every user and application in NetSuite's cloud-based management system is connected to the same data system. All data is updated in real-time, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and allowing for thorough insights.

All of the data, contacts, invoices, and vendor bills are current and easily accessible. This gives you peace of mind. It's also easier to make conversions if you can see what's going on in real-time.

Reliable Financial Reports

As your business expands, perhaps even internationally, you may find yourself dealing with many subsidiaries, different currencies, accounting issues, and tax compliance. QuickBooks is a good bookkeeping program, but it falls short when it comes to financial reporting.

It can't manage more advanced, strategic finance and forecasting. It simply cannot perform these things efficiently if you need to run a report or track an audit. The program is unable to provide real-time reports, which are critical for swift decision-making, particularly during periods of significant expansion.

Real-time reporting in NetSuite allows for fast analysis and educated decision-making based on current, real-time data. The possibilities for reporting are boundless, and users can create accurate reports from within NetSuite. You will have access to all of your business data and reports from any device, at any time.

The NetSuite accounting system can also give you more reliable financials and a more accurate picture of your company's progress. It has capabilities including cash flow mapping, budget forecasting, profit margin tracking, and inventory analysis.

By migrating from Quickbooks to NetSuite, you gain the ability to automate essential accounting procedures with Oracle NetSuite financials. This can help reduce the risk of error and delays associated with manual processes.

Opportunities for Future Scalability

Various systems are required to maintain track of essential data in businesses with multiple locations. When data is stored in multiple locations, it is more difficult to locate crucial performance indicators and make judgments. Whereas data kept in a single global location can be accessed from many locations without needing to be reconciled. When your firm is fast scaling and your market or market locations are expanding, this is vital. You must deal with a variety of accounting systems, currencies, taxes rules, and business requirements, among other things.

NetSuite has global regulatory, monetary, and linguistic capabilities. It is all controlled in the same manner if you desire to do business with other countries. Furthermore, NetSuite has demonstrated that having a single, streamlined software suite will support your growth and provide scalability as your company grows. This helps in ensuring that your data is up-to-date and correct throughout the organization.

Connected Data Flow Across all Departments

QuickBooks is a software program that only provides financial and accounting capabilities for businesses. Its main product is bookkeeping software. Other solutions are not included and will have to be integrated. To grow in your industry, you need a system that streamlines accounting, order management, customer relationship management, and ecommerce. When transitioning from Quickbooks to NetSuite, you are providing the firm with a variety of additional resources that would not have been available with a startup system.

When your entire firm has access to the same customer information and transactions, your team will be able to obtain customer information quickly and efficiently. NetSuite eliminates double data entry, which saves time. NetSuite can set the bar for accurate, synchronized data streams across your whole organization, including inventory management, accounting, fulfillment and shipping, project management, and workflows.

Accurate and Advanced Inventory Management

NetSuite inventory management automates real-time tracking of inventory levels, orders, and sales throughout the inventory lifecycle, reducing human operations. NetSuite also has a demand planning feature that allows customers to forecast inventory changes based on historical patterns and revenue expectations. Inventory counts, picks, pack shipping, integrated barcoding, and multi-order picking are all available warehouse management tools.

Competitive Pricing

QuickBooks has a reasonable price point, which appeals to small and new firms. This measure, however, may be deceiving. It's crucial to factor in all of the other services you might be paying for that could be included in the NetSuite and QuickBooks price comparison. This could include customer relationship management, ecommerce, and any other systems your business needs.

To begin with, Quickbooks does not require a contract, so you can cancel at any time. Although the prices are reasonable at first, they do not cover extra users, payment administration, or billing. While getting these features can increase the overall cost, it is still a very cost-effective alternative for startups or self-employed individuals.

NetSuite, on the other hand, offers a large selection of products and functionalities. As a result, each solution is unique. NetSuite offers a variety of price options. It can be tailored to meet businesses with as little as ten people as well as those with over a thousand. In addition, you won't have to invest in all of the infrastructures that conventional accounting systems often necessitate.

Request a free consultation from our NetSuite advisors to learn more about what your company will pay and whether the advantages exceed the costs. While the cost may appear exorbitant at first, the underlying benefit of a NetSuite system is that it is built to scale into the future.

Easy Conversion and Technical Support

Because NetSuite is a cloud-based system, switching from QuickBooks will be easy and convenient. The best aspect about this shift is that no data will be lost, and in most circumstances, the user experience will be unchanged or even improved.

In terms of training and customer support, both QuickBooks and NetSuite offer installation support and some aid in training end users. That being said, only NetSuite Solution Providers offer a team of qualified specialists and outsourced NetSuite accounting solutions to assist businesses. Companies looking for employee support or training, or simply to add modules as their business grows, can take advantage of ready-made solutions.

Why Do People Switch From Quickbooks To NetSuite?

Time-consuming Manual Processes

When data is manually transmitted between systems and departments, it is more likely to be lost in day-to-day operations. Because data is manually entered, it is subject to a higher amount of errors. Subscription billing, revenue recognition, asset management, and multidimensional reporting are just a few of the important business operations that QuickBooks Enterprise does not automate or address. Users in the enterprise must rely on a variety of point solutions, each of which has its own set of challenges.

Employees must spend time manually entering data, which leads to an increase in errors. It's possible that incorrect customer data exists, resulting in vital documents being lost. If you're experiencing these situations, it's best to consider switching to NetSuite.

Limited Financial Capabilities

For the sake of simplicity, QuickBooks Enterprise has a standard, hard-wired chart of accounts. Unfortunately, this limits your capacity to capture and organize transactions into your unique financial structure of assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses. QuickBooks, unlike many other cloud-based financial software packages, has a limited collection of accounting features. Due to the lack of capabilities, additional programs will be required to complete the task.

It is tough to grow into new places and product lines because of this inability to advance with enterprises. Fundamentals that adjust to industry-specific requirements are missing from these systems. Making the switch to NetSuite can benefit you in the long run as legacy systems are generally incapable of scaling.

Inability to Track Progress

QuickBooks Enterprise is mostly a desktop program with no actual cloud functionality. You can pay for it to be hosted by a third-party company, but this adds another vendor to handle and does not provide all of the cloud's benefits.

QuickBooks excels at accounting and bookkeeping. However, in today's market, staying ahead of the curve necessitates more functionality. It's critical to keep an eye on finished inventory, the supply chain, raw materials inventory, and accurate financial forecasts. Without the ability to handle these factors, you'll get behind the competition almost immediately.